This invention relates generally to detecting radiation in a living being for medical applications, and more particularly to detecting, localizing, and imaging or mapping of radiation in a portion of the body of a being by means of a radiation detecting probe and an associated radiation blocking shield.
The use of radioactive materials to tag tissue within a patient for effecting its localization and demarcation by radiation detecting devices has been disclosed in the medical literature for at least forty years. Significant developments in the localization and demarcation of tissue bearing radioactive isotope tags for diagnostic and/or therapeutic purposes have occurred since that time.
Thus, it is now becoming an established modality in the diagnosis and/or treatment of certain diseases, e.g., cancer, to introduce monoclonal antibodies tagged with a radioactive isotope (e.g., Indium 111, Technetium 99m, Iodine 123, and Iodine 125) into the body of the patient. Such monoclonal antibodies tend to seek out particular tissue, such as the cancerous tissue, so that the gamma radiation emitted by the isotope can be detected by a hand-held radiation detecting probe. Such a probe is disposed or held adjacent portion of the patient's body where the cancerous tissue is suspected to be in order to detect if any radiation is emanating from that site, thereby indicating that cancerous tissue is likely to be found there.
Prior art, hand-held, radiation detecting probes are commercially a available from the assignee of this invention, Care Wise Medical Products, Inc. under the trademark OncoProbe.
In copending U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 07/363,243 and 07/491,390, filed on Jun. 8, 1989 and Mar. 9, 1990, respectively, and assigned to the same assignee as this invention there are disclosed hand-held radiation detecting probes having collimating means to establish the field of view of the probe. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,803 (Denen et al) there is also disclosed a hand-held radiation detecting probe.
In some cases background activity (i.e., radiation emanating from portions of the body other than the portion being investigated) may interfere with sensitive and accurate surgical radiation detecting probe localization of radiolabeled tissues within body cavities.